Influence of Different Developmental Stages on Content and Composition of the Essential Oil and Antioxidant Activity of Nepeta scrophularioides Rech.f. Essential Oil

Abstract

The essence of the present study is to focus on the chemical composition, antioxidant activities of essential oils of Nepeta Scrophularioides Rech.f. during different developmental (vegetative, flowering, post-flowering) stages. Gas chromatography-Mas spectrometry (GC-MS) analyse of the essential oils showed that the major components were beta-caryophyllene (20-27 %), germacrene D (16-19 %) and caryophyllene oxide (18-39 %). The samples were subjected to screening for their possible antioxidant activities by using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The oils extracted from the flowering and the post-flowering stages showed higher antioxidant activity than those from the vegetative stage.